Pages

People

One World is led by Founder and Executive Director Joanne Derwin, a mother of two bilingual children and an experienced nonprofit manager, educator, and social justice advocate. Before initiating One World, Joanne worked at the Alliance for a Greater New York and Urban Agenda, organizations aimed at building a thriving, green, and just New York. Previously, Joanne worked at the Ford Foundation and helped manage three grantmaking initiatives with a combined annual budget of $12 million. Joanne has also done research for Partners of the Americas and the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership in Washington D.C. and spent two years working as an English teacher in Alicante and Barcelona, Spain. She is a graduate in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder and holds a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University.One World’s Lead Spanish Teacher Monica Paillet Zurdo brings over a decade of early childhood teaching experience to One World including her pioneering play-based language acquisition curriculum. Monica has a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Education both from the University of Valladolid as well as extensive training in Intercultural Education.One World's Dance, Movement and Theather Instructor is Katia Castañeda Urzúa. Katia is a director, performer, and teacher. She earned her degree in Dramatic Arts from Universidad Veracruzana. She works independently, acting and directing her own projects and in collaboration with diverse disciplines and with dance and theater companies. She has work with Allora&Calzadilla, Quiatora Monorriel, Daniel Lara, Nadia Lartigue, Compañía Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes, Estudio 28, Arte físico, Pablo Mandoki and Abraham Oceranski among others. As a director she was the recipient of the Young Artists fellowship from the National Endowment of Arts, in Mexico in 2009-2010. She also received this distinction as a performer in 2001-2002. Katia's extensive teaching experience includes teaching classes on movement, dance, and theater in public schools in Mexico City with PROANIC program and workshops for children and teenagers with the Carrillo Gil Museum of the Arts and the Pasos Foundation.

One World’s resident author and screenwriter is Javier Peñalosa Mendoza . Javier is the author of two children books and has been involved in several creative workshops and readings for children. As a screenwriter, he has developed award winning TV programs broadcasted in Mexico and abroad. He is also twice the recipient of the prestigious fellowship for young writers from Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas, in 2009 he was awarded a Poetry National Prize, and is currently a Young Artist Fellow from the National Fund for the Arts in Mexico. Javier has a bachelor’s degree in Education and is pursuing a MFA in Creative Writing at New York University. In addition to Spanish and English, Javier is also fluent in Italian and French.One World's Mandarin instructor is Kyla Huang, a graduate student in Bilingual Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Kyla has nearly a decade of experience as a kindergarten teacher and worked with language learners of all ages. Her particular upbringing and education have made her a successful, multilingual individual; and she believes that bilingual education will establish promising potentials in the future generations.